Seljord Serpent

Seljord serpent

From: http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/normon.htm

The serpent in Norway's Seljord
lake has fueled local folklore for centuries, not unlike Scotland's
fabled Loch Ness monster. And like those who have gone to look for
Nessie, an international team of explorers hopes to give some scientific
backing to the legend of the elusive creature in the murky Norwegian
depths.

Swedish freelance journalist and veteran serpent tracker Jan Sundberg
and his 11-man team plan to spend 17 days trawling the lake in
southern Norway using state-of-the-art imaging equipment and a
mini-submarine fitted with cameras. "It is a challenge to
prove that people really have seen something and that it is not
just fantasy or illusion," 51-year-old Sundberg told Reuters. "There
are many witnesses going back 250 years who have seen the serpent.
It is written in the history of the community, and every year there
are new sightings by reliable witnesses. Why would people lie?"

Sundberg's last Seljord serpent expedition was in 1977, when echoing
equipment detected large objects moving in unison and separating
in various directions. "We were really excited about this.
We had good results at the time but we couldn't follow up because
we didn't have as much sponsorship as we have now," he said.
For this trip, he has $200,000 worth of cutting-edge technology
including an echo sounder, a side-scan sonar -- a torpedo-shaped
object towed behind the boat that sends back horizontal and vertical
images -- and a miniature submarine with three television cameras,
a gripping arm and sonar. "I am really confident we have
a good chance of getting instrumental results," he said. "But
if we're going to see the creature above the surface and film
it, it will take more than good people and equipment but a lot
of luck." Sundberg assembled his team of intrepid explorers
mainly via the Internet and describes them as "a mixture
of rookies and more experienced searchers." The volunteers
from Sweden, Norway, Britain, Ireland, Belgium and the United
States will search round the clock in four-man shifts.

The creature gained its first recorded testimonial in 1750 when
Gunleik Andersson-Verpe from nearby Boe was "attacked by
a sea horse" while rowing on the lake. In 1880, Bjoern Bjorge
and his mother, Gunhild, reportedly killed a "strange-looking" lizard
as they were washing clothes on one of the lake's beaches. Descriptions
this century have varied from a black log-like creature with
several humps, a crested neck and an eel-like head to a beast
with a head like a horse or the features of a crocodile. Other
reports call it a snail-like creature with two horns on its head.
Grainy amateur video taken in 1988 and 1993 show humps in the
middle of the lake, but they could easily have been waves. Legend
says the beasts came over land to the picturesque lake, set in
steep pine-covered mountains 100 miles west of Oslo, when they
outgrew a smaller one nearby.

Sundberg is skeptical of claims the creatures could be up to 150
feet long. He says the lake, at nine miles long by 1.2 miles
wide and 510 feet deep, could not support such beasts. "People
have told of enormous sizes of 25, 30, even 50 meters long. But
realistically how could a family of animals of such size fit
into a small lake like this?" he asked. "Creatures
of between one and seven meters are more feasible. Maybe it would
be possible to reach 50 meters if it is thin and snake-like like
a python. But otherwise no way."

Sundberg rejects skeptics who claim shadowy sightings could be
explained by the movements of moose, otters or beavers. "The
serpent does not fit any species known to man. It has several
qualities not seen before such as traveling on the surface at
high speed and moving vertically up and down," he said. "It
shows a back or a head or a neck or all three for long periods
above the surface and travels very fast, maybe up to 25 knots."

The Seljord town council and local campsite owners are sponsoring
Sundberg's hunt for the beast, hoping for a boost in tourism
from the publicity. The village has already made some attempts
to cash in on its monster myth by changing its coat of arms to
a serpent in 1986 and building a serpent exhibition. A 23-member
delegation went to Loch Ness in 1992 to discover why Nessie is
such a hit. But Asbjoern Storrusten, the village council's coordinator,
said boosting tourism was not the only point of the exercise.
Definitive identification of something living in the lake would
help locals who often shy away from admitting sightings for fear
of being ridiculed.

"
People are frightened to say what they have seen. Other people
from outside the area don't believe in the serpent and they think
those that have seen it are mad or maybe drunk," said Storrusten,
who comes from Drammen, near Oslo. "I did not believe it before
I came here and talked to people. These are responsible, serious
people, and when they look you in the eye and say they have seen
something, you cannot disbelieve it. These lakes are less researched
than the dark side of the moon. Who knows what's there?"